Museum of the Second World War

The Museum of the Second World War stands at pl. Wladyslawa Bartoszewskiego 1, beside the Radunia canal on the edge of Gdansk's Old Town in Poland's Pomeranian region. Opened in 2017, it is one of the largest history museums in Poland and presents the war as a global conflict, told from the perspective of ordinary civilians as well as soldiers and states. The main exhibition lies largely underground, below the angular building, and leads visitors through a long chronological route from the 1930s and the rise of totalitarian regimes, through the invasion of Poland, occupation, the Holocaust and the war in Europe and Asia, to the aftermath. Reconstructed streets, rooms, vehicles and original objects give the displays a strong atmosphere, and the scale of the route means it is better taken slowly. A full visit takes three to four hours, and many visitors find that even this is short for everything on show. The exhibition contains distressing material, including images and testimonies of violence and persecution, so it may not suit very young children. Tuesdays have free entry, when the museum is open 10:00 to 16:00, but queues are longer and the galleries more crowded. Weekday mornings in the shoulder seasons are generally calmer. The museum entrance and the surrounding square can be photographed from outside, and visitors should check at the desk the rules on photography inside the galleries. The ticket office hours are Wednesday to Sunday 09:30 to 17:00, and Monday is closed. A main exhibition ticket costs 33 PLN, or 23 PLN reduced. The building is 15 minutes on foot from the Green Gate and combines naturally with the Museum of the Polish Post Office and Westerplatte, which the same museum institution runs, to give a full picture of the events of September 1939 in Gdansk.